Torah For Today: Changing sex?

Rabbi Ariel Abel takes a topical issue and looks at Jewish texts for an Orthodox response

Kathleen Stock, professor of philosophy at Sussex University, has said she believes people cannot change their biological sex.

The DNA information written into to every cell determines whether a person has a Y chromosome and is therefore biologically male, or does not and is biologically female. Once the biological sex is determined, in accordance with how the egg was fertilised before it became a foetus, it cannot change or be changed.

Lord Robert Winston concurs, but also pointed out in a TV interview on 15 October that there is more to sex than the DNA information biologically embedded in one’s cells.

“I will say this categorically – that you cannot change your sex, your sex actually is there in every single cell in the body. You have chromosomal sex, you have genetic sex, you have hormonal sex, you have all sorts of psychological brain sex – they’re all different.”

In classical Judaism, gender identification is determined according to the external genitalia.

However, later rabbinical responsa admit other gender-indicating non-genital signs – such as developing breasts, facial hair or a deepening of the voice – which previously were not in evidence.

Abraham Hayim Miranda, an 18th century rabbi in Salonika, Greece, discussed whether a trans-man needs a circumcision. Rabbi Yosef Palaji, in 19th century Izmir, Turkey, ruled that a transman need not receive a get (bill of divorce) from a husband as the wife had transitioned and was no longer a woman at all. Palaji also discussed the possibility of a transwoman reciting a variation on the blessing “who has not made me a woman” and reciting instead: “Blessed are You who has turned me into a woman”.

These responses demonstrate that non-binary identities are positively identified and discussed in halachic Judaism.